Petty Little Monsters (Little Monsters Series, Book 1)

39

"Did you threaten Liam in some old-timey goth way?" I asked after a while.

Abel snorted and pulled back, shaking his head. "No, I excommunicated him from the community."

I frowned and Abel could probably see the confusion on my face, despite the lack of light there.

"My family is one of the oldest. Liam's is considerably younger. Getting shunned by one of the older families is like getting kicked out of the sect. No one's gonna associate themselves with you in fear of repercussions from the older family who did the excommunication." He sighed and shrugged a little. "I didn't know what else to do. He needed to be stopped."

"Hey man, I'm not complaining. Maybe that makes me a really bad person, but fuck that guy." I spat on the ground. "Was that why they wanted to be your friend at the beginning?"

He nodded. "They're all from lesser families. You know, no matter what species you are, it's all about status. It's always about power, money, control and status."

"And your family has a lot of all of it."

He nodded again. "Yeah. It wasn't right to use it. I don't like using it. My parents didn't raise me like that."

"Maybe we should talk to your mum about it."

"Yeah, I should. You don't have to come with me. I think it's better I do it on my own."

"Just text me if you need me. And come right home after."

"Home," he murmured and pulled me close again, his hands balled in the hoodie he technically owned, but I had stolen from him.

He could just stop buying really nice and stealable hoodies, in my defence.

"I'll be home soon." He gently pressed his lips to my forehead, and I closed my eyes revelling in it. "Get a ride with Fred and Cal, alright? I don't want you walking around alone. It's not safe."
"I'll go back in a minute. Just gonna see you off and then I'll head home too, alright?"

"Alright."

I waved at Abel as he drove off and turned back towards the gallery building. It wasn't much to talk about. Used to be an old gym that had been rebuilt for exhibition purposes. Couldn't very well have such a large arts department and nowhere to exhibit our work. In between our own in-house exhibitions, students could put on their own exhibitions and outsiders could rent it too. Sometimes there were school parties in there. Like the summer party to close off the school year before summer vacation. I couldn't wait for that now. To have summer back. Autumn and winter here were just grey and boring with lots of rain. It didn't really get that cold. But I thrived in warmer climates. I thrived during the summer.

"Everything was great before you," someone said from behind me.

I turned to find Liam there, looking like a sobbing mess.

"Yeah, because my entire presence is enough to disrupt your life," I spat back.

"Why did you have to murder people like that? Huh?" He took a step forward. I didn't budge.

"I haven't killed anyone. I don't know how to get it through your fat fucking head, I'm not the one killing people."

"Of course, you fucking are! You're the monster!" he growled and took

"Says the one who poisoned a random arts student. And ruined not only his work, but also a fellow student who had fuckall to do with it." I stood my ground. I was not about to back down from this. "Just because I was the unlucky one to get this fucking curse, I've got no control over. I didn't ask for this, Liam! I never asked for any of it!"